Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thursday Clip Show

Clip Show

Or if you prefer, highlight reel.

Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek backs sales tax: "Take a drive through the Coral Ridge Mall on a Saturday or Sunday and look at all those cars with license plates from counties other than Johnson. You will be amazed. The May 5 vote is your opportunity to have all of those non-Johnson County residents help lower your taxes and send extra money to help maintain your rural roads."

Here come those gay marriage tourism dollars: "The couple organized the "Show Me Marriage Equality Bus," which will depart from St. Louis at 6 a.m. May 1 for Iowa City, where the couples will obtain marriage licenses and head to a non-denominational space for more personal ceremonies. Fourteen couples are signed on to ride the bus, but there is room for 20 couples if more are interested..." It may be non-PC, but the idea of Big Gay Al's Big Gay Wedding Bus just won't leave my head.

Saw One Iowa's pro-marriage equality ad on actual TV last night--but as it was MSNBC during Rachel Maddow they were pretty much preaching to the choir...

Well Mr. Pence, I have lived a long time now. I grew up during the Cold War when we were on hair trigger alert of nuclear war. I remember virulent anti-American communist dictators threatening our country on a regular basis. I remember our presidents meeting with them, shaking their hands and negotiating...

I have also seen us establish normal relations with Vietnam. I have seen 30 years of normalized relations with China. And I don’t think there is any contradiction between standing strongly for our principles and our values, and the give and take of diplomatic encounter...

My bottom line is I am here to serve my country, which I have loved since I was a little girl. I support my President because he is committed to doing whatever he can in the time he is given to serve to make this a better more secure safer world. There are different approaches. I respectfully say we spent 8 years trying to isolate Chavez, and what has been the result?

I don’t think it’s been in America’s interest. So we are gonna try some different things. I respect your disagreement. We want as bi-partisan a foreign policy as possible.......constructive criticism. We want your feedback.

But President Obama won. He beat me in a primary in which he put forth a different approach. And he is NOW our President, and we ALL want our President to succeed...

All except Rush anyway. Oh, and Clinton and committee member Ron Paul has nice things to say about each other: “Having campaigned [with you] during the last presidential election, you had the most enthusiastic supporters of anyone I ever saw.” Secretary Clinton continued, “Your message obviously resonated with a lot of people.”

Speaking of Ron Paul as I shamelessly shill for traffic: Nate Silver thinks the tea parties, and perhaps the future of the GOP, are more Paulish than Paliny: "Although many conservative groups were eager to co-opt their purpose, the core of the message -- anti-tax, anti-big government -- was about as libertarian as it gets."

And speaking of undeserved traffic: A lot of people using The Google for "Obama Iowa Earth Day" yesterday found my story from the Pentacrest rally. Has it been two years already?

The 47,000 residents of Wilson, NC got tired of paying for slow broadband, so the city government launched its own fiber ISP called Greenlight that offers some pretty solid packages ranging from $99 for 81 cable channels, unlimited phone service, and 10Mbps (down and up) internet to $170 for every single channel including premiums and 20Mbps up/down internet. (There's even a "secret" 100Mbps up/down internet plan.) Of course, these prices blow TWC and Embarq out of the water -- the comparable basic Time Warner plan has fewer channels and less bandwidth for an "introductory rate" of $137 -- and rather than compete, the two giants decided to lobby the North Carolina legislature into proposing bills that outlaw community services like Greenlight.

The Million Militia Man March: how Confederate. I can't decide what's better: the far far right stealing a line from Louis Farrakahn, or the fact that the pictures of massive crowds in their video are from Obama's inauguration.